


Avoidance

by MistyBeethoven



Category: John Wick (Movies)
Genre: Acceptance, Assassins & Hitmen, Assisted Suicide, Avoidance, Character Death, Contemplative, Conversations, Death, Diners, Facing The Truth, Gen, Guilt, Killing, Late Night Conversations, Melancholy, Murder, Running Away, Sad, feeling invisible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-11
Updated: 2019-10-11
Packaged: 2020-12-07 12:49:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20976170
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistyBeethoven/pseuds/MistyBeethoven
Summary: After a late night discussion in an all night Diner, John Wick comes to the conclusion that he does not want to kill anymore.





	Avoidance

**Author's Note:**

> This story really came about from thinking about Viggo Tarasov's motivations and Chad Stahelski & Keanu Reeves' thoughts on the only believable ending for John Wick being a sad/bad one.
> 
> I just love Diners even though I've never actually eaten at one. It's on my bucket list: Must eat at Diner before I die. I also love the rain. Eating in a Diner while it is raining? Dream come true. Talking to John Wick, or even better Keanu Reeves, in a Diner as it rains outside? I'm afraid I won't get into Heaven because I'd be experiencing it then.
> 
> BTW the Diner in this story is the same as Martin Scorsese's "After Hours"
> 
> Paul & Marcy you would have been beautiful together!

There are people you remember and there are people you forget, the Administrator thought as he sat drinking his coffee. There seemed to be some undiscernable divide between those that attracted attention and those others where eyes glided over them without their being seen.

Taking another sip from his glass, the bureaucrat knew he was one of the unseen. He had known it for most of his life. It was a belief reinforced the moment the other man had entered through the door.

Some people you meet by random. You know them from a picture or from some time in your life which you can no longer pinpoint. You are only aware that you know them in some way that detoured a regular introduction.

Sitting in the vacant Diner, their booths at opposing ends, the Administrator knew exactly who the man was sitting so closely at the far end of the watering hole. He knew as well why he had chosen the seat by the exit.

The man was John Wick and he was aware he may need to run; be it at the drop of a hat, the ticking of a clock or the heartbeat he feared would be his last.

The Administrator realized how he knew Wick: he had seen his photograph when he had sanctioned the Excommunicado order on him. Even without those things, the bureaucrat would have known him from his reputation. The man was a killer but not only that; he was the greatest assassin the world had ever been made to fear. The Baba Yaga they called him: the Boogeyman.

Only this Boogeyman scared adults and not children.

It could have been loneliness, or it may have simply been boredom and a possible distraction from the only sound being the rain hitting the Diner's windows, but the Administrator picked up his coffee and walked over to where the other man sat, staring with haunted and dead eyes at the table before him.

"May I sit down?" the younger man asked the older.

John Wick raised his eyes and the Administrator guessed correctly that it was the first time he became aware of the fact that he wasn't alone. Maybe the assassin had been too tired and absorbed in his own thoughts to intake his presence but the civil servant suspected it was simply because he had not truly _seen_ him. Despite his piercings and tattoos, the Administrator often felt invisible. He often suspected that something about him made others overlook him in favor of other more commanding creatures. Usually it bothered him but on this night it did him a favor:

It gave him the opportunity to speak to the infamous John Wick.

The bureaucrat could see the assassin's quick reflexes going to steal even this from him as he studied him and marked him for his profession. He was about to flee or commit murder but the Administrator stopped him.

"Don't. It's my day off."

In the world of the High Table there were many rules and codes. While they were not as kind as God they allotted their servants one day, and one day alone, where they could forsake any and all duties. It was Wick's luck that only two hours earlier the Administrator's day of rest had started.

"So can I sit down?" the pierced man asked impatiently.

"Why would you want to?" the older man asked in weary confusion.

"Because it is raining," the bureaucrat vaguely replied as he took the seat without permission.

They sat together in silence, staring at the blotches of rain on the window; the way they dripped from the top to the bottom, collecting the other raindrops they encountered along the way. The rain blurred the vision of the signs of the buildings across the street making them only glamorous beams of various colored lights that spiked off in every direction, glowing.

"I want to ask you how did all of this start," the Administrator spoke, not bothering to look at his companion as he continued to focus his attention outside the window. He took a sip of the coffee, still warm enough to burn his tongue. "I'm the one who stamped your file but there really aren't details on those things...just facts."

"So ask me," John Wick dared.

"How did this start?"

The Administrator sat in his seat at the Diner and listened to Wick's tale only interupting once or twice for a more detailed explanation of this occurrence or that. The hitman seemed relieved to tell it; maybe he feared the weight of it had been slowing him down for too long.

When he had finished his tale he looked at the Administrator in relief and defiance. It was as if he were daring him to hate him after knowing all the facts.

In truth, the bureaucrat found he could not. He had seen what John Wick had been truly running from the whole time.

Taking a cigarette from out of the pack in his pocket, the Administrator leaned back, the palm of his free hand cupping his elbow and fixed his gaze on the yellow bottle of mustard on the side of the table. "You say this all started with a dog?" the pierced man stated.

"Yes. Daisy."

The Administrator took a drag from the fresh cigarette. "So you fucking well went out and slaughtered a bunch of assholes because one little shit killed your puppy?"

"She wasn't just a puppy...she was my hope. A chance for a new start."

The Administrator laughed bitterly, blew smoke onto the window and turned to look at his companion. "And does this look like a new start John Wick?"

The assassin glared at him solemnly across the table.

"Funny," the Administrator said returning the cancer stick to his mouth.

"What's so funny?" Wick asked in annoyance.

"Funny for wanting a new life you were willing to fall into your old one so fast."

The great Baba Yaga leaned back in his own seat, the hand he had on the table, beginning to toy with a napkin that was lying on it.

"Do you think Helen would have approved? Do you think she would have been proud of you?"

"They were all killers," John defended.

"Still you left the life you had built with her in the blink of an eye. Why was that?"

No answer sounded in the Diner. Only the clink of the dishes being done somewhere in its heart.

"I think it's because you didn't want to stay there," the Administrator stated. "She was no longer there. It was too painful to stay."

John Wick stared at him before nodding slowly.

"So you killed Viggo too. For the puppy?"

"No," the hitman denied. "I killed him because he killed Marcus."

"And why did he kill Marcus?"

"Because he was supposed to kill me and then didn't."

"Because of?"

"Daisy."

"Whom was murdered by?"

"Iosef."

"Who was?"

"Viggo's son"

Hearing it for the first time, now so removed from the actual event, the small man saw John Wick's eyes widen as he realized the connection between the two men whose bodies had long since grown cold.

"Don't you think Viggo looked at his boy often and loved him just as much as you loved your dog?" the bureaucrat theorized. "Don't you think a very long time ago, Iosef was his own little puppy? It makes you wonder: is one man's sorrow worth causing another's?"

"I can't change that now," Wick defended. "They're gone."

The Administrator nodded in agreement. "And look where it lead you: One death to another and then to another. Cassian...He grieved for Gianna so he went after you. And you pierced him in the aorta."

Taking a sip of his coffee, liking the way it made the cigarette smoke taste in his mouth, the bureaucrat stared out the window.

"He would have killed me," another warrented justification.

The Administrator nodded and turned his coffee cup around. "Why do you want to stay alive so badly?"

"I want to stay alive to remember her," John answered.

"Bullshit. You're just like the rest of us: You're afraid to die. Only problem is you're afraid to live just as much. If you were to be pardoned tomorrow you'd hate it."

It was the Baba Yaga's turn to ask a question. "Why is that?"

"Because then you'd have to face the fact that your wife is dead."

Wick's face contorted in the agony of hearing words that were too true for comfort, like seeing an unwanted reflection in a mirror.

"While you're running you can forget and not remember. It's those moments you stand still that scare you the most. You live from one death to another so you can escape the one that wounded you the most. It is hers and not your own that has already killed you. As long as you stay alive you will continue to destroy anyone you touch, John Wick."

The Administrator looked out the window as the rain continued to pour; the drops on the window still falling and growing; the lights on the other side of the street still looking like shining sea urchins.

When he turned to face the assassin, the bureaucrat found him likewise staring out the window. The tears on the glass outside were mirrored on the other man's face.

"No more killing," John Wick vowed but if it was to his dead wife, God or himself the younger man could not tell.

The Administrator finished his coffee and cigarette and left the hitman alone. As he walked past the window he saw the man staring out it. The bureaucrat could not be sure if Wick had seen him or not.

* * *

After the servant for the High Table had returned home and gotten some sleep, he chose to spend the rest of his twenty-four hours free walking about in the sunlight he barely ever saw.

It was with a certain dread and curiousity that he realized that John Wick was following him. At first, the bureaucrat believed that the man had reneged on his vow and wanted to kill him. However, after a few hours of just catching glimpses here of there of his handsome shadow, the Administrator realized that the man was holding true to his promise.

Then the true reason why the Baba Yaga was following him occurred to the pierced man.

And he began to run.

It was to no avail; no matter where he went in the city, John Wick was able to find him. 

The day of his rest almost over, the Administrator found himself hiding behind the Diner where he had met the assassin almost twenty-four hours ago. The rain had started again and the bureaucrat's hair was escaping its constraints and was sticking to the side of his face. He was soaked and tired but for a wonderful moment he believed he had shaken off the man who was following him.

To his disappointment, the Administrator looked to his side and saw John Wick standing beside him no more than six feet away. The bearded man was drenched as well but there was a look of calm resolve on his usually sorrowful face. 

"Your day off up now?" John stated. 

"Yes. Get away from me. If I don't kill you then they will kill me."

Then again, that was the point.

"I know," Wick replied.

The man had accepted death. He was no longer afraid of it. When John Wick had vowed he would not kill ever again, though, he had meant anyone, including himself. 

And he had chosen the one to do it; it was the same person that had shown him the light.

"I don't want to do this," the bureaucrat said and to his surprise he meant the words. He wished the man beside him no ill will. The Baba Yaga had his pity not his hatred.

But John Wick was tired of running.

And he was tired of living as well.

"If they'll kill you if you don't...don't make me a killer," was all the taller man said.

Seeing the pain now more clearly in his companion's eyes, knowing that Wick had seen how any life offered to him free or hunted could only be worthless, the Administrator took out his gun.

He had been the one to open the assassin's eyes and he guessed it was only fair he end his misery too by closing them forever.

The pierced man aimed his gun in the pouring rain and brought the hitman's suffering to its ending. 

The Administrator walked slowly closer towards the man he had just killed. He held John Wick's hand as the life slowly faded from his sad, dark, lonely eyes.

"Thank you," John used the last of his life to whisper until his eyes glazed and God alone knew what the man could and could not see.

His day of rest completed, and having to report what had just taken place, the Administrator soon became known as the man who had killed John Wick.

Everyone saw him now; they all paid to him their respect and attention.

Haunted by the man he'd only known for less than a day, the Administrator soon found himself wishing that he was invisible again.


End file.
